Oikakete  Chase
by PinkScorpion51
Summary: MichiruHaruka. Haruka wants to kill herself...or does she?


"Haruka, where are you?" Michiru was running down a long corridor in her high school. "Haruka!" She ran onto the roof and found Haruka standing on the edge, looking down onto the street. "Look, Michiru...Look at all the little ants!" She said, turning her face to see her girlfriend standing at the door. Her eyes looked empty and there were tears staining her cheeks. "Haruka, no." Michiru shook her head. Haruka pointed downward. "There's a toy fire engine and about fourteen Hot Wheel police cars too!" It was then that Michiru noticed the bandage wrapped around Haruka's neck. It was stained with blood. "How did this happen?" She asked. Haruka pulled away.

The sirens were deafening and Haruka just kept standing there, watching the people milling about below her, trying to get things ready in case she decided to jump. She just stood there, laughing at them. "Stupid people. That puny net will never hold up. It's nearly...forty feet from here to there." She whispered, shaking her head. Michiru started walking a little closer, reached out for Haruka's hand and stopped. "No, I can't startle her. She'll lose her footing." Haruka looked back at Michiru. "Haru-chan, what about your driving career? If you end your life now, you'll never get onto the Formula-1 circuit." Michiru didn't think Haruka's eyes could get any deader than they were at that moment. "I'll never acheive that dream, Michiru. I'm not good enough." Michiru turned around, tears in her eyes. "I'm so sorry you feel that way, Haru-chan. You know, we'll be alright." Haruka turned around and nodded. "I know it would be but I can't stop now, Michiru. I'm in too deep to turn back from this." Michiru started to cry and wrapped Haruka's coat closer around herself, inhaling deeply and letting out a shaky breath. "Haru-chan, we can move away. Anywhere you want to go, name it. Anywhere." Haruka chuckled and turned back to her ledge. "Yeah, I know. Nothing would be the same, though." Michiru nodded, wanting desperately to wrap her arms around Haruka's back and let her cry her eyes out. She'd listen to whatever she had to say and if Haruka didn't know that by now, she'd never know it. "I love you, Haru-chan." A fireman ascended the ladder and started toward Haruka. "Don't touch me!" She said, moving away from both her and Michiru's touch. "No one touches me or I jump!" She screamed, her eyes wild. The man shied away and gave the signal to lower the ladder. "Haru-chan, come down from there! I want to talk to you." Haruka turned around and looked at Michiru. "We can talk from up here, sweetheart." She said, closing her eyes. Michiru reached out. "Can I have your hand?" Haruka gave it to her without turning around. "You know I love you, right Haru-chan?" Haruka nodded and Michiru smiled, kissing her knuckle. "Good, now...You know I'm here for you, right Haru-chan?" Haruka nodded to this too and Michiru tried to pull her back over the railing. "Haru-chan, if you love me and I love you, we can work this out. We can start now if you'll come back over the edge to me." Haruka smiled and pulled her hand away. "No, I can't move, sweetheart. I have to see this through to the end, right? Can't be a quitter." Haruka smiled lovingly and Michiru nodded. "You never do anything halfway, do you?" Haruka shook her head. "No, I don't." She laughed. Michiru giggled and put her arms around Haruka's neck. "I love you, Michi." Haruka said, kissing her temple. Michiru smiled and squeezed her shoulders. "I love you too, Haru-chan. Come on, come back over the railing and we'll go out to lunch like usual, okay?" Haruka shook her head and turned back to the edge. Michiru's grip tightened. "If you jump, I'll jump too. I can't live without you, Haru-chan." She said softly. Haruka turned around. "What? That's a line from Titanic and a corny one, at that. Come on, Michiru. Can't you come up with a better line than that?" Michiru kissed her gently. "No, I can't, Haru-chan. I love you and love is a corny emotion." The fireman tried to get Michiru's attention. "Excuse me, young lady. Could you try to get him to come closer to me?" Michiru turned her gaze to her. "I'm sorry, but she won't budge. You'll just have to wait for a moment." He nodded, entranced by Michiru's beauty and turned back to look at the ground. "Haru-chan, we'll move. We'll get a bigger house and we'll...I don't know, we'll buy a better car. You can open up a garage and I'll paint and play violin at the community center. What we wanted when we were kids." She smiled and rested her head on Michiru's shoulder. "I'd like to, Michi, but that'll never work." Haruka's eyes were still dead as she turned back to the edge and leaned forward. "I'm going ahead of you, Michi. My hands are too blood-stained. I'll never be able to go on with life after what I've done." She looked down to her hands and shut her eyes against the tears. Then, she jumped. 

Michiru screamed. She vaulted the railing and plummeted after Haruka, eyes closed and arms up against falling debris. The edges of her vision blurred and suddenly, she was racing up the stairs to the roof. "Haruka!" She called. "Haruka, where are you?" The image blurred again and she was sitting in class when the teacher informed the class that Haruka had just been flunked out of school for bad grades and a fight that had taken place behind the gym at lunch the day before. Three girls had cornered her and tormented her about her sexuality. They'd taken a double blade and slashed her across the neck. She'd fought back only when they threatened Michiru with it. She put all three girls in the hospital's ICU ward with extreme head trauma.

The image of Haruka lying asleep on their bed through a crack in the door floated into Michiru's mind as she walked closer to the door. She was dressed in a hunter green negligee and a sheer crème robe, gold lamé slippers on her feet. Her hair was down and her makeup was gone. The only adornments she wore other than that were the matching necklace and ring that Haruka had given her for her birthday last year. She sighed and covered Haruka up, kissing her forehead before lying down. Haruka stirred a little and wrapped her arm around Michiru's waist, smiling against her shoulder. "Silly little angel." Michiru whispered quietly, closing her eyes. The sweet image of nighttime in the Kaioh/Tenoh household faded into one of Uranus and Neptune lying on the marble floor in front of Kaorinite, their Pure Heart Crystals floating above their motionless bodies. Uranus's voice wafted into Neptune's ears. "At least...we could go together, Nep. We'll see...we'll see...we'll see each other again...someday..." The voice faded and Michiru was running up the stairs to the roof again, this time in her negligee and robe. The floor disappeared and she was falling into space, stars and moons flying around her. She saw a vision of her mother introducing her to her new husband at twelve and of meeting Haruka for the first time at the Juban-Cho Game Center at fifteen. Another vision of Haruka picking her up from a party on her sixteenth birthday, a vision of the hospital where she'd spent a month after a nearly fatal heroin overdose. Haruka hugging her around the neck after a football game at their old high school, her step-father hitting her across the face, sending her across the room to slam into the wall. Michiru saw visions of Haruka getting into a motorcycle accident and being carried to the hospital in an ambulance, leaving her standing on the sidewalk, her eyes wide and bloodshot, coughing from the smoke and the tears she tried to choke back. Then, suddenly, she was back on the school roof, seeing Haruka at the railing. Words were flying through her head. Love, Hate, Expulsion, Police, Rape, Sex. Haruka, Blood, Darkness, Death, Suicide...She was sitting at the table in her kitchen, reading the paper with a cup of coffee almost to her lips. Teen Lovers Commit Double-Suicide; Jump Off Local High School Roof. Her eyes went wide. "If you jump, I'll jump too. I can't live without you, Haru-chan." She heard the words in her mind. "Silly little angel...I love you, Haru-chan." "Look at all the little ants! Toy fire engine...fourteen Hot Wheels police cars...Michi!" A voice far off from her, almost unreachable. "Haru-chan, I love you." She sees herself, limp and pale from all the drugs, shooting up in a corner of her room. Shuddering from withdrawal. Playing Air Hockey with Haruka at the Game Center. Kissing on the front porch and dropping her needle. Smashing the little syringe into the ground. Rehab...rehab...rehab...Life renews itself. Haruka outside the Rehab Center with a bouquet of white roses. Unable to breathe. Haruka pulls out a ring box with two rings and k anotted gold chain with a heart-shaped charm dangling from it. Michiru K. + Haruka T. Luv 4-Eva. Running water... Curtains open... Step out... Slip... Fall... Water spilled on the floor. "Michiru..." Who's voice is that? 

"Michiru! ...Michi...Michiru Kaioh!" Haruka?

"Hello, planet Earth to Player B." Oh, Usagi-chan...

"Open your eyes!" Yikes!

A hospital bed, all white and chrome. Haruka beside the bed with one hand in another's. "Michiru, are you awake?" The room spins. Shakes. Settles down. "Ha-Haruka?" The world seems right. No more visions. She's alright now. "Yes, Michi. I'm here."

Michiru sat up and looked around. All her friends stood around her bed, watching her. Even Usagi, Rei, and Mamoru were there. "What happened?" She asked, looking to Haruka. "Well, you went in to take a shower and fell when you got out. Slipped on some water that had spilled from the tub and hit your head pretty hard." Michiru's fingers immediately went to her head. There was some dried blood in her hair and a large bump, but no pain. She seemed okay. She reached out and wrapped her arms around Haruka's neck. "I had the craziest dream, Haru-chan." She said. Haruka looked at her curiously. "Haru-chan? You never called me Haru-chan...I like it, though." Michiru leaned against Haruka for comfort and support.

_Fin_


End file.
